Meghalaya to have pay App for ASHA: Health Minister James Sangma

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Government will soon have an 'ASHA' and 'ASHA Facilitators' payment application.

"We have acknowledged that there is a delay in these incentives reaching in time to the ASHA workers. Hence, we had promised during last year that we will develop an efficient online claims and payment mechanism, thereby this delay is reduced drastically," State Health Minister James Sangma told the House during the Budget Session of the Meghalaya Assembly on Monday.

Sangma informed that this App was developed with the support of National Health Mission (NHM).

The Health Minister, while replying to a calling attention notice, informed the House that the sole purpose of developing the application is to ease the payment process of ASHA incentives and ensure timely disbursement of the same.

He also said that the application will also be an important support tool for programme officers at all level as it will enable regular monitoring and tracking of ASHA payment and ensure minimum time lag in payments.

According to Sangma, this application has been rolled out in Umling Block of the Ri-Bhoi district on a pilot basis and it is expected to be implemented in the entire State by April this year.

The Health Minister informed that 74 ASHA workers of Umling Block have successfully raised their claims and payments have been made to their accounts within 48 hours of their claims.

He also informed that the Government has released a total of Rs 151 crore in the last four years for ASHA for various incentive purposes, including the pending backlogs of erstwhile Meghalaya ASHA Benefit Scheme (MABS) and Meghalaya Maternity Benefit Scheme (MMBS).

"Of the Rs 151 crore that has been released, about Rs 79.49 crore, which is over 50 percent amount, has come from State resources only," Sangma said.

The Health Minister informed the House that this is three times higher in comparison to the total release of Rs 48.87 crore during 2013-2018.

He also told the House with the introduction of the incentives from the Government of Meghalaya, an ASHA worker is guaranteed a minimum of Rs 4,000 per month, excluding the incentives under National Health Mission, which are performance based.

He said that on an average, an ASHA worker is expected to earn an incentive of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per month depending on performance.

Sangma also said that fixed incentives and COVID-19 incentive from the State Government of Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 respectively per ASHA worker per month have been released to the districts in two instalments.

The first instalment was released for payment till September, 2021 and the second instalment was released for payment till March, 2022.

The Health Minister informed that the number of ASHA workers has been increased from about 6,690 in the year 2018 to 7,051 in the year 2022 to reach each and every locality in the State.

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